Joaquin the Whale's fossilized backbone is displayed at Ralph B. Clark Regional Park's Interpretive Center. The remnants of a pelvis and a femur are seen next the backbone. ANGELA PIAZZA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

A mammoth, a baleen whale and hadrosaur dinosaurs all live in the hills of Buena Park.

Well, their bones do at least.

Tucked at the foot of the Coyotes Hills is Ralph B. Clark Regional Park. And the park is home to the only museum in Orange County dedicated to fossils found locally, called the Interpretive Center.

“It's a small museum, but it is a museum,” said paleontologist Lisa Babilonia, who runs the center.

Fossils were first discovered in the Clark Park area in the 1950s and '60s when Caltrans used the dirt there to build the 91 and I-5. More were found as the park was being built in the 1970s and '80s. The county decided to give the fossils a home, and in 1987, the museum opened.

Since then, the museum has evolved a bit. In 2009, a back room was added to host marine fossils.

Babilonia said the museum plans to collaborate with Cal State Fullerton and the Cooper Center so more research can be done, and she also plans to set up a foundation in the future so the public can donate to the museum.

Clark Park is home to about a dozen active dig sites, Babilonia said. The most recent find was about five years ago. A high school senior volunteer was digging in a site known as “Tony the Pony,” for the name given to the horse fossil found there. She hit upon something and soon found an entire upper row of horse molars. What's more, they weren't from Tony.

The student called the horse Jackpot. In a couple of years, Babilonia plans to collaborate with the student and a curator from the San Bernardino County Museum to research exactly what type of ancient horse Jackpot is.

For now, Jackpot is kept in the museum's storage room, which has rows and rows of 72 cabinets filled with fossils. Babilonia estimated only about 1percent of the museum's collection is displayed for the public.

“Remember ‘Indiana Jones,'” Babilonia said, “when they rolled the Ark of the Covenant into that big warehouse? It's really like that.”

Of what's displayed on the floor, Babilonia highlighted five standouts:

Hadrosaur pieces

There are very few dinosaur fossils found in Orange County. Babilonia estimated all of Orange County's dinosaur bones could fit into two to three shoeboxes. That's because most of Orange County was underwater during the prehistoric era.

But nine pieces – skull fragments, vertebrae, toes – from a family of dinosaurs known as hadrosaurs sit in a display case. Hadrosaur is a catch-all term for any duck-billed dinosaur. The pieces date to the late Cretaceous period, or about 66million years ago. The dinosaurs likely lived more inland and were washed downriver after they died. The bones in the museum were found in the Santiago Canyon area.

Baleen whale

Dubbed Joaquin the Whale, this nearly complete baleen whale was found in the 1990s when the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor was being built.

Joaquin is unique for a couple of reasons. First, he's one of the most complete whale fossils found in Orange County. Only his right flipper is missing. When he died, he sank into a quiet, muddy area that preserved him, Babilonia said.

Second, he displays a period of whale evolution. Whales evolved when four-legged mammals living on the shoreline gradually made their way back to the sea. Joaquin's skeleton shows that evolution by having the remnants of a pelvis and a femur.

Paleoparadoxia

The Paleoparadoxia is a hippo-like creature in the manatee family. And the one on display at Clark Park is twice as big as any other Paleoparadoxia ever found.

Most Paleoparadoxia have skulls about a foot and a half long. The one on display at Clark Park is 3 feet. No one knows why this one is so large, Babilonia said. When this one was found, Babilonia said, scientists were “shocked and impressed.”

Mammoth

Placed in a display case meant to simulate the look of a dig site, pieces from various mammoths sit at the entrance to the museum. Mammoths roamed the area between 10,000 and 100,000 years ago.

Most of the pieces come from one mammoth found at Bastanchury Road and State College Boulevard in the 1990s. The creature was discovered when a housing development was being built. Babilonia recalled collecting the pieces as construction was starting, a practice she said is known in the paleontology world as dodging bulldozers.

Megalodon shark jaw

Megalodon sharks, ancestors to great white sharks, swam around Orange County between 1.25million and 28million years ago. Their jaws ranged from 50 feet to 60 feet long.

The shark jaw displayed at the museum is a cast. Like a few other items in the museum, a combination of broken fossils and the item being in high demand elsewhere means the museum cannot display the real thing. But teeth from the megalodon have been found all across Orange County. The jaw at Clark Park, displayed wide open, is a hit among families and children, Babilonia said.

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.